Football's Magic Money Tree

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Jul 18, 2019 7:35 pm

More on that post #1687 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1686" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and the phenomenon of this summers transfer window for football journalists

https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/ ... ring-spree" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Jul 18, 2019 8:19 pm

If you thought that story about SportPesa was disturbing (see Post #1700 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1699" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) - try this from the Times

Gambling, Africa’s new child plague - by Andrew Gilligan, Nairobi - July 14 2019, 12:01am
Super-rich Premier League stars are heroes to the children of Kenya’s slums and UK betting firms harvest millions from their obsession

British betting companies and football clubs are “luring” hundreds of thousands of African children into an illegal gambling craze that Kenya’s government says is “destroying” their lives.

Using techniques banned in the UK, the companies appeal to youngsters by using cartoon characters and free branded merchandise. At a British company’s betting shops in the Nairobi slums, The Sunday Times witnessed children as young as 14 gambling freely, in breach of Kenyan law.

Tracey Crouch, who resigned as sports minister in protest at the government’s lack of action over gambling, said she was “deeply concerned” at the revelations, adding: “It is reminiscent of the way that tobacco companies are seeking new markets among young people in Africa.”

Top English football clubs, which have millions of fans in Africa, are closely involved in the promotional efforts. Arsenal sent its former star, Sol Campbell, to Nairobi for children’s coaching sessions with SportPesa, a Kenyan betting company that is its African sponsor. Hull City players went to a Nairobi shanty town, where they handed out SportPesa-branded wristbands and football strips to schoolchildren.

One British company, Editec, which trades in Kenya as PremierBet, made pre-tax profits of £17m on a turnover of £51m in 2017, almost entirely from Africa.

Children in Kibera, Nairobi, Africa’s biggest slum, told The Sunday Times that PremierBet staff let them gamble knowing that they were underage. The Kenyan government last week launched a crackdown on foreign and local betting companies, suspending many operators’ licences, banning mobile payments to them and threatening to deport or even arrest foreign managers. As of yesterday, however, the firms continued to operate.

In the middle of Kibera, Africa’s largest urban slum, almost the only proper buildings are a school, a church — and the betting shops: islands of brick and concrete in a tin-and-plywood sea.

The Kibera branch of PremierBet is clean and well lit, with video screens showing English football. For Geoffrey Mwicha and his friends, aged 14, 15 and 16, it is their gateway to a better world. “If you get money, you just take it for betting, because you may win there,” he said. “You don’t have another mind but for betting. You don’t even think to eat. If you have a good luck, then you eat.”

Geoffrey, 15, once won 200 Kenyan shillings (£1.55) betting on Chelsea. “I only put 10 bob on,” he said, his face lighting up at the memory. In a video on its YouTube channel, a PremierBet manager says the company’s purpose is to “change people’s lives”.

For Geoffrey and his friends this is a promise kept. After they started betting, they dropped out of school: there was no money to pay the fees. Their parents abandoned them. Now they fetch and carry for a local water dealer — most of Kibera’s supply is controlled by gangs — earning £8 in a bad month. But still they clutch their dream. “You want money and you want to enjoy your life,” said Alfred Otieno, 14. “If you bet every day, God may give you a chance of good money.”

For some British companies, and several of England’s best-known football clubs, this is a new African gold rush. In recent years betting has exploded in Kenya and among its children, surfing the wave of a fanatical following for English Premiership football. Betting adverts plaster buildings, vehicles, even the hi-vis vests worn by the motorbike taxi drivers. Families watch television adverts featuring Arsenal, which is sponsored by a betting firm. The slogan is “They play, you win”.

Kenya’s interior minister, Fred Matiang’i, said 76% of his country’s young people now gambled and 500,000 Kenyans, most of them young, had been blacklisted by credit reference agencies for gambling debts.

Jennifer Kaberi, a youth rights activist, said: “My own children say, ‘Mummy, why don’t we bet and then we can get a lot of money?’ People don’t realise that only one person in a thousand can win — they think it’s a shortcut out of poverty.”

It is a route to riches for some companies such as Editec’s PremierBet. Its enviable margins are achieved with the help of practices not permitted in the UK: companies appeal to youngsters by using cartoon characters and free branded merchandise for school and youth sports teams.

Kenyan law bans gambling by under-18s but enforcement is sporadic. “You can go there [PremierBet] and play if you have 10 years,” said Stephen Bukomi, 15.

“On the weekend they don’t want children,” said Geoffrey. “In the week there’s no people for betting, so we are being allowed because we bring money.”

Do the staff know how old they are? The boys all laugh. “They know,” said Jackson Nzomo, 15.

“They want our money,” said Geoffrey.

The “casino” section of PremierBet’s Kenya website has cartoon-character gambling games that appeal to children. They have names such as Lucky Pirates, fronted by a friendly toucan, Spellcraft, with smiling witches, and Rainbow.

To get children hooked, the games can be played in “fun” mode, betting notional money. It is these casino games, among others, the boys say, that they play for real money in the Kibera betting shop. Such games have been removed from UK gambling sites to protect youngsters.

In Cameroon, PremierBet has even sponsored a school, with its corporate logo on the wall. In Malawi, its national marketing manager, Fady Younes, said in a video: “We hope that everyone who places bets will win up to 20m [kwacha — about £21,000].”

Editec describes itself on its website as “able to manoeuvre through landscapes of unregulated markets, setting highest and marketleading standards”. A spokesman said it was “extremely disappointed” by The Sunday Times’s findings, which it said were “totally against our culture and our values . . . We can assure you, our customers, partners and all stakeholders, that we will investigate and act accordingly.” It said its school support was “giving disadvantaged people opportunities to better themselves”, not promoting gambling.

PremierBet is not the only British-linked gambling company involved with African youngsters. Six of the eight betting shops that The Sunday Times visited in Nairobi had children in them, some so young they struggled to reach over the counters to place their bets. At the Betin outlet in Kibagare, Ian Odielo, 16, had just won 250 shillings (£1.95). “I lose many times but this time I won,” he said. “I put 50 back on and I lost it. The rest will keep me alive today, just for today.”

Arnold Okote, 15, who goes to the same shop, has learnt that the television adverts are wrong. “The amount you lose is more than the amount you win,” he said. Why does he keep doing it? “It is an addiction.”

Betin is closely linked to a company called Logispin, domiciled in Malta and with back-office functions in eastern Europe but apparently run from West Byfleet, Surrey. Betin is variously described as operated or licensed by Logispin. Senior Betin staff, including its head of sportsbook trading, are based at Logispin’s West Byfleet offices. Logispin did not respond to questions.

Betway, another Malta-registered but British-based company in the Kenyan market, gives sponsored kit to youth football teams including Kibagare FC, many of whose members are under 18. The team’s coach, Johnson Ntali, said about half the child players had started betting as a result. “They like Betway because they gave them the strip,” he said.

Betway said it did not sponsor any children’s teams and “the shirts in question were explicitly donated for over-18 use only”. But the most interesting British players of all are the Premier League and Championship football clubs that take millions to promote gambling firms. In Nairobi, the Tottenham and England star Harry Kane stares out from giant billboard adverts for 1xBet, Spurs’ “official betting partner for Africa”.

As of last month, 1xBet’s Kenya site was offering odds on children’s sport, including under-16s basketball and games that appeared to be taking place in school gyms. Tottenham has not been involved with promotional activities for children in Kenya.

In 2016 Arsenal sent Sol Campbell to Nairobi for children’s coaching sessions with SportPesa, a Kenyan betting company that is the club’s African sponsor. It is the one that makes the “They play, you win” ads. The event, which received saturation coverage in local media, was plastered with SportPesa branding and the children wore strips with the company’s “JengaGame” slogan.

“SportPesa and Arsenal have put together a collaboration . . . for young kids, identifying young talent,” Campbell said during the trip. “For me, teaching the coaches and the players the Arsenal way, that’s why I’m here.”

SportPesa also sponsors Hull City and Everton, to which it is paying a reported £48m. Everton visited Kenya last weekend, where several players, in SportPesa-branded kit, took part in an event at a project for slum girls, Let Our Girls Succeed, funded by Britain’s Department for International Development. Everton said players and staff wore club kit to club-related activities but the event was not associated with or sponsored by SportPesa or aimed at promoting gambling to youngsters.

Last year Hull City players went to Kibera, picking their way gingerly across the open sewers with a police escort. The squad and the manager, Nigel Adkins, handed out SportPesa-branded kit and wristbands to children.

“We want to share, we want to give back, we want to help,” Adkins told them. “SportPesa, Hull City, kits for Africa.” Hull’s “multimillion-pound” deal with the company, “the most lucrative in the club’s proud 112-year history”, was nominated for partnership of the year at the 2018 Football Business awards. The club said it “takes its role in promoting responsible gambling seriously, regardless of territory”.

In Kenya there is growing alarm over the partnership between betting, football and addiction. “Uncontrolled gambling has reorganised the financial lives of poor Kenyans in very drastic ways,” said Matiang’i. “Let us stop pretending. We must stand up and call sin by its name for the sake of our children.”

The Kenyan government now appears set on a showdown with the betting firms, announcing last week that it would suspend 27 companies’ licences, including those of

SportPesa, Betway, Betin and PremierBet. It has also suspended their ability to accept money through the country’s popular mobile phone payments service and threatened to deport or even arrest foreign managers. As of yesterday, however, their websites were still operating.

Patrick Lumumba, pastor at the Everlasting Gospel Mission Church in Nairobi, said his church was caring for a child whose father had killed himself because of gambling debts, some run up by the boy.

“He took a piece of paper and wrote to me, ‘I am leaving this family for you to take care of,’ and then he took rat poison,” Lumumba said. “The betting companies lure them in.”

He added that he spent a lot of time trying to sort out the chaos that gambling caused in his congregation’s lives.

“When they are given money to pay school fees, they rush to the betting shop,” he said. “Then they have to steal. You ask these children, ‘What do you expect to do when you grow up?’, and they say they will live by winning money on the betting.

“What I say to these [betting] companies is that they should stop doing this. It is ruining the lives of our children.”

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:27 pm

In post #1688 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1687" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) we saw the premier league bigging up it's 11% growth in global audience for it's programming that showed that actually it equated to an audience average of just 3.55m a match. Here Nick Harris of @SportingIntel offers a much more detailed insight and context.

https://twitter.com/sportingintel/statu ... 7800998914" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:34 pm

More on gambling sponsorship - this thread from a Wolves fan is perhaps the most resonant I have seen piece I have seen on the subject so far

https://twitter.com/SPQR_10/status/1135983925313114114" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Jul 19, 2019 2:37 pm

I have posted a piece about global sport sponsorship behemoth and Chinese Telecoms giant OPPO before (see post #1511 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1510" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) that time it was a question of whether China was using sport as a tool for data surveillance. Here Simon Chadwick looks at just how wide this company's sponsorship net is cast

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 5533693957" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Jul 19, 2019 4:14 pm

More on that that story on Everton shirt sponsors SportPesa (see Post #1700 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1699" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) which was done in partnership with FinanceUncovered.org - this is a parallel piece by them

https://www.financeuncovered.org/uncate ... a-everton/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Jul 19, 2019 5:11 pm

The Guardian does a piece on how Egypt has failed to exercise the soft power benefits it was hoping for by hosting the African Cup of Nations

https://www.theguardian.com/football/bl ... soft-power" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Jul 20, 2019 12:10 pm

@OliverKay of the Times discusses why Leicester think Harry Maguire is worth £90m - The power is with the sellers -

Wilfried Zaha for £80m? Harry Maguire for £90m? Prices prove power rests with sellers this summer

Huge TV income means Premier League clubs such as Leicester City can demand £90m for prized assets, resulting in a flat transfer window, writes Oliver Kay

What price Harry Maguire? No, really, what price Harry Maguire? Eyebrows were raised in 2017 when Leicester City paid £12 million, potentially rising to £17 million, for a 24-year-old who had been part of the Premier League’s worst defence that season at Hull City.

The same is happening now, two years and 20 England caps later, with Leicester warning Manchester City and Manchester United that they will not sell him for less than £90 million.

Is he worth it? By any kind of objective analysis, the answer would be an emphatic no, particularly given that Juventus paid “only” £67.5 million this week to sign the outstanding young Ajax captain Matthijs de Ligt. As impressively as Maguire has developed in recent years, he still looks like the rough-and-ready type rather than a footballer who may change hands for £90 million.

It is not easy to imagine him as the most expensive defender in the game’s history or sitting behind beguiling, fleet-forwards such as Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, João Félix, Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembélé as the seventh-most expensive player overall.

Manchester City were prepared to break their £62.8 million transfer record for Maguire, such is Pep Guardiola’s regard for him, but they have been put off by Leicester’s asking price. Manchester United appear willing at this stage to go higher than their cross-city rivals, but even their executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, appears mindful of the lessons learnt when he gleefully blew Manchester City out of the water in the desperation to make the “statement” signings of Paul Pogba and Alexis Sánchez.

Manchester City are considering alternatives, among them the Bournemouth defender Nathan Aké. He would not come cheap either, though, with Bournemouth looking for at least double the £20 million they paid Chelsea for him in June 2017.

So, to repeat the question, what price Maguire? The CIES Football Observatory, a Swiss-based research group which continuously monitors performance data and transfer valuations, proposes £49.3 million. That sounds reasonable enough, with their algorithm taking into account the economic strength of the selling club and of the most likely buyers for the player.

What no algorithm can fully reflect, though, is the realities of a market in which Leicester have no cause to sell. They took £120.1 million in Premier League broadcast revenue and prize money alone last season, so they can effectively name their price. It is not like those days when clubs’ business plans revolved around attendance figures, cup runs and the need to cash in when offered a big cheque for a star player.

That £49.3 million valuation would put Maguire outside the CIES’s top 100 highest-ranked players across Europe’s top five leagues, which includes 12 central defenders (Virgil van Dijk, Aymeric Laporte, John Stones, Clément Lenglet, Samuel Umtiti, Milan Skriniar, Antonio Rüdiger, Raphaël Varane, Joe Gomez, Davinson Sánchez, Marquinhos and Thilo Kehrer) and, reflecting market trends, is dominated by forwards, wingers and creative midfielders.

Another player just outside the top 100 is Wilfried Zaha, who is valued at £52 million under the CIES system. That would put him much closer to the £40 million figure offered by Arsenal a fortnight ago than the £80 million demanded by his club, Crystal Palace.

It is obvious, though, why Palace felt so insulted and enraged by Arsenal’s opening bid. Zaha, 26, is widely regarded as the outstanding attacking talent outside the Premier League’s “big six”. Arsenal can cite the CIES valuation of £52 million as evidence that their opening offer was reasonable, but the significant factor here is that Palace’s business plan is about staying in the Premier League and accruing more than £100 million in broadcast revenue and prize money year after year — and that Zaha’s importance to the club, integral to their on-pitch game plan and their wider ambitions, goes far beyond any objective valuation.

Premier League economics, with clubs guaranteed upwards of £100 million for every year they stay in the competition, make it a seller’s market. Palace have already demonstrated that by selling Aaron Wan-Bissaka to Manchester United for £45 million, potentially rising to £50 million, after one full season at first-team level. CIES valued the 21-year-old at £35 million — a fairer-looking price, which takes into account Wan-Bissaka’s outstanding performance data in his breakthrough season but a figure that, realistically, was never going to be acceptable to Palace.

These days, many clubs in Palace’s position, whose only financial pressure is to stay in the Premier League, would rather keep a star player than cash in. It is why the market for trading between Premier League clubs is so flat. How would Palace even think about trying to replace Zaha?

They identified Max Aarons, the England Under-19 full back, as a possible replacement for Wan-Bissaka, but rumours of a £10 million bid met with as much derision at Norwich City as Arsenal’s offer for Zaha did at Selhurst Park. Aarons, 19, signed a new contract with Norwich instead. He has not yet kicked a ball in the Premier League but if and when he moves on from Carrow Road, it is likely to be for an awful lot more than £10 million.

Manchester United are still sniffing around Sean Longstaff, the Newcastle United midfielder, whom CIES value at £7.2 million based on the potential he showed when breaking into the first team and making eight Premier League starts last season. Newcastle, though, would want more for Longstaff than the £30 million they raised when selling the 25-year-old forward Ayoze Pérez to Leicester. Manchester United, understandably, have cooled their interest.

Finding value, or perceived value, is increasingly difficult but it can be done. Manchester City’s deal to sign the Spain midfielder Rodri from Atletico Madrid cost them £62.8 million — a club record — but CIES valued him at £78.8 million. Similar applies to Tottenham Hotspur’s club-record £54 million signing of Tanguy Ndombele from Lyons. The midfielder is valued at £61.8 million under the CIES formula. No deal in football comes with guarantees, but Rodri, 23, and Ndombele, 22, both impressed at Champions League level last season and both are young enough to improve.
The flip side of the inflated sums demanded by Premier League clubs, though, is that there tends to be more certainty about whether a player will adapt both on and off the pitch. Maguire has shown over the past couple of years that there were hidden depths to the talent he showed at Sheffield United and Hull, but at 26 he strikes you as the what-you-see-is-what-you-get type. He does what it says on the tin.

Is that worth £90 million or anything close to it? Surely not, but, in this crazy market, you are unlikely to get him for much less.

Most expensive transfers
1 Neymar Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain, 2017 £198m
2 Kylian Mbappé Monaco to PSG, 2018 £116m
3 João Félix Benfica to Atletico Madrid, 2019 £114m
4 Antoine Griezmann Atletico to Barcelona, 2019 £107m
5 Philippe Coutinho Liverpool to Barcelona, 2018 £105m
6 Ousmane Dembélé Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona, 2017 £97m
7= Paul Pogba Juventus to Manchester United, 2016 £89m
7= Eden Hazard Chelsea to Real Madrid, 2019 £89m
9 Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid to Juventus, 2018 £88m
10 Gareth Bale Tottenham to Real Madrid, 2013 £86m

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I think he may be over-egging the level playing field on revenues - the big six earn so much in commercial. UEFA and match day revenue, that they are still miles and miles ahead

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Jul 20, 2019 12:37 pm

Article and Podcast with Liverpool CEO Peter Moore from Forbes.com on the subject of future for Fan Experience

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsi ... 8d4511acba" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Swizzlestick · Post by **Swizzlestick** » Sat Jul 20, 2019 1:55 pm

Not sure if this has been posted yet or not, but the Open University do a free online course about the business of football, complete with free certificate at the end! Pretty good if you're a beginner to all this.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-bu ... iption-tab" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Jul 20, 2019 3:28 pm

for those of you who like to know these things - squad churn stats ahead of the new season based on minutes played last season - for all 4 divisions - includes link to the underlying data

https://twitter.com/experimental361/sta ... 5392578560" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 12:25 am

I have only touched on the implications of Brexit for English football and the Premier League a few times of note (see posts #789 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... &start=788" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and #254 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... &start=253" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) - there was also the thread last summer based on comments from our Chairman in this article https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45206066" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Premier League is now less fearful it seems - from the Telegraph

Premier League convinced Brexit will not prevent clubs signing European players - Luke Edwards, Shanghai - 20 July 2019 • 10:30pm

The Premier League do not anticipate any threat to English clubs being able to sign European players after Brexit following discussions with the Home Office.

There had been fears that Britain’s exit from the European Union, which is due to happen on October 31, would make it far more difficult for clubs to sign players from European countries because of the end of freedom of movement.

But it seems as though football will be treated as a special case, with the Premier League’s interim chief executive, Richard Masters, once again voicing his opposition to any attempt by the Football Association to increase the homegrown player quota.

“Our clubs want to have full access to talent – and that is our focus,” said Masters, from the plush Shangri-la hotel in Shanghai, his base to attend China’s Premier League’s Asia Trophy.

“I think the government and politicians appreciate what English football in general and the Premier League, in particular, brings to the country.

“The Premier League is an important part of 'Brand Britain' around the world and I don't think the government would want to do anything that has a negative impact on the Premier League or the English national team.

“That's why I am sure we will sort it out. We have to come to an arrangement with the Home Office at some point.

“Obviously, no-one knows when Brexit is going to happen. And so, we're in constant dialogue with the Home Office and the FA and making sure that our clubs can continue to get access from talent from Europe and beyond.

“I don't think there is a scenario where the Premier League will be badly affected by Brexit. I think we will find appropriate accommodation and our clubs will be able to recruit the players they want from abroad.”

England manager Gareth Southgate has repeatedly warned of the risks to the national team caused by the Premier League’s fascination with foreign signings who are ready to go straight into the first team.

That has helped fuel the FA’s desire to use Brexit as a means to force clubs to have more homegrown players in their squad as they would no longer be restricted by EU laws.

That will be forcefully resisted by the Premier League who continue to blindly argue the Academy system already works well enough, even though there were only 113 British players used by top-flight clubs last season.

“We are developing a cohort of players through the academy system and we have to keep the balance right,” added Masters.

“We have a team of people involved in those conversations, looking at it, talking to all of the different stakeholders involved.

"We aren't convinced by the arguments that limiting the number of foreign players and increasing quotas on homegrown players will benefit the England team.

“We certainly think something like that would have a negative impact on the Premier League – and that's what we are talking to the FA about.”
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Are you convinced? - I know I am not

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 12:32 am

It would appear that Man United have not learned the lessons of the Alexi Sanchez stupidity - as they agree to pay an underperforming star so much for so long that no one will ever want to buy if you need to sell - Pogba will be after the same at this rate - From the Telegraph

David De Gea agrees six-year Manchester United contract worth £117m to become world's highest-paid goalkeeper - James Ducker, Northern Football Correspondent, in Singapore - 20 July 2019 • 10:30pm

David De Gea will become the world’s highest paid goalkeeper after agreeing a new six-year contract with Manchester United worth around £117 million.

But Romelu Lukaku remains determined to quit United and is hoping Inter Milan come back with an improved offer after the Italian club had an opening £54 million bid rejected.

De Gea - who made his first appearance of pre-season in United’s 1-0 win over Inter Milan in Singapore on Saturday - will put pen to paper on the new deal, which is believed to be worth around £375,000 a week, once he returns to Manchester from the tour.

Yet while the United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, will be relieved about the clarity over De Gea’s future, Lukaku remains stuck in limbo.

Teenage striker Mason Greenwood again took full advantage of Lukaku’s continued absence with the only goal against Inter in the International Champions Cup at Singapore’s National Stadium, three days after claiming his first senior goal in the 4-0 victory against Leeds United in Perth.

Solskjaer has ruled out any prospect of Greenwood being loaned out as the 17-year-old further boosted his chances of starting United’s opening Premier League game against Chelsea on August 11.

Solskjaer suggested for the first time on Saturday that United are able to play “a different way” without Lukaku but the manager risks being stuck with the Belgium striker unless Inter find a way of getting closer to his £90 million valuation. The Italian club need to offload Mauro Icardi, who is interesting Juventus, to free up cash.

“If you’re a player and don’t manage to train for a week - and he’s missed three games now - I think he’ll be concerned,” Solskjaer said. “He’s working to get back on the pitch and let’s see how long that takes. It’s his ankle.

“I think we have done really well without Romelu but we all know he’s one of the top, top strikers in the world. We’ve played a different way maybe with Anthony [Martial], Marcus [Rashford], Mason, so you adapt to the players who are available.”

Antonio Conte, the Inter coach, remains hopeful an agreement can be reached. “I like him because I consider him a player who could improve our team but on one side it is my hope, my will, on my other side we will see what we find with the club,” Conte said.

De Gea is believed to have thought long and hard about his future this summer after a dismal last season, when United finished sixth in the Premier League, 32 points adrift of champions Manchester City.

United’s willingness to make him the club’s highest paid player after Alexis Sanchez and the support he received from Solskjaer and the coaching staff in the final months of the campaign, when his form nosedived, had a significant bearing on his decision.

De Gea, 28, was said to have been at a very low ebb by the end of last season and needed his spirits lifting but he likes working with goalkeeping coach, Emilio Alvarez, and believes United can get back to challenging for top honours.

United would not sanction the England Under-21 goalkeeper, Dean Henderson, returning to Sheffield United on loan until De Gea’s future was resolved. But a meeting between Henderson’s agent, Sean McDaid, and United’s head of corporate development, Matt Judge, in London on Monday over a new contract for the goalkeeper went well and another loan deal with Sheffield United should be agreed soon. Henderson has attracted some interest from Bayern Munich but United regard him as a potential future No 1.

Solskjaer said the situation with Greenwood reminded him of the one Sir Alex Ferguson faced with Ryan Giggs almost 30 years ago as he insisted the youngster’s development would be carefully handled.

“Mason’s never been on my mind to send out on loan, he’s one that we have to keep at our place, keep him playing when we feel it's good for him and at the moment he's flying,” Solskjaer said. “He reminds me a little bit of the Giggsy story, you can't really send him on loan and for me he's ready to be in this squad.”

Ashley Young was booed by United fans at the National Stadium and Solskjaer said he would talk to his captain. “I’ve not spoken to him but I’ll have a chat with him yeah,” Solskjaer said.

“I think Ashley is a top professional, he always gives absolutely everything and his delivery today ended up with a goal, we want our fans to support our players and Ash has been a very loyal servant to this club for many years and he will keep on performing when he plays.”

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:04 am

An absolutely fascinating Business talk that also tells us a lot about football, and perhaps goes some way to explaining our last 2 seasons

Rasmus Ankersen tells us What Football Analytics can Teach Successful Organisations - lasts about 16 mins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy2vc9lW5r0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:11 pm

No great surprise and obviously budgets would change downward (as would commercial revenue) - but it is useful to see in this stark format rather than as a percentage of revenue. @KieranMaguirre shows us the losses that would be made in the Premier League without the TV money

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 2837184512" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:22 pm

@AndyhHolt makes yet another case for proper regulation and a new set of financial rules in the pyramid

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 0392621056" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royboyclaret · Post by **Royboyclaret** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 2:04 pm

Chester Perry wrote:No great surprise and obviously budgets would change downward (as would commercial revenue) - but it is useful to see in this stark format rather than as a percentage of revenue. @KieranMaguirre shows us the losses that would be made in the Premier League without the TV money

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 2837184512" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Normally I have a lot of time for any analysis that Keiran Maguire undertakes, but in this case the numbers are utterly pointless. For example, without the £119m TV money that we received in our last set of accounts, there's no way our Wage bill would have been £81m. In fact it would have been nearer £8m and we'd be unable to even compete in the PL.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 2:13 pm

I did make the point Roy it just illustrates our dependence in a different way - I debated about posting it for a few hours and came down on that point with the appropriate qualification

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:27 pm

Given all the turmoil of FFP in the Championship especially. @KieranMaguire has begun looking at the position of each of the clubs - this is an initial rough calculation, I believe that a more thorough analysis will following in the coming days. It does seem to show that for all it's failings FFP (and Birmingham City's points penalty) is definitely reining in the rampant overspending - at least to the guidelines.

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 1649181696" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 2:15 pm

In post #1089 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1088" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) I linked an article about the online phenomenon of fans blindly defending their club against any negative media articles - it was primarily about Man City's fan's mobilisation against the report of the desire by UEFA's Investigative Chamber to have them banned from the Champions's League (post #1046 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1045" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). Here I link a very extensive article on the Man City/Abu Dhabi situation around that and more (***WARNING*** set aside at least 20mins to read and digest)

https://medium.com/@NcGeehan/trollerball-188bfad1e63a" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

predictably it is already being hammered by the City online community - https://twitter.com/NcGeehan/status/1153178891915288576" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 2:28 pm

More on football and Brexit (following up on post #1712 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1711" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) this time from Daniel Geey (whose articles I have linked a couple of times in the past) a Football Lawyer and a colleague who specializes in Imigration - this is a transcript of a podcast from back in April

https://danielgeey.com/brexit-and-football-again/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 2:44 pm

In post #1693 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1692" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) I mentioned that Man City had finally started their own in house TV station. Man Utd have had theirs for well over 15 years) Roy Kean was effectively sacked in 2005 over criticisms he made of players on the channel. Now Utd are looking for it to become a serious financial contributor to their commercial efforts.

https://medium.com/swlh/manchester-unit ... c6a02407d3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On the face of it, it just looks like another commercial exploitation by the masters of it all - but if (and it is a big if) content is separated from Premier League content this kind of thing by the biggest clubs may just allow the Premier League collective agreement to survive

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 2:58 pm

In support of the previous post an overview of the current status of OTT (own channel) TV by top clubs and leagues as it currently stands

https://www.soccerex.com/insight/articl ... ott-growth" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 7:50 pm

In post #1621 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1620" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) I linked an article that recommended how visiting clubs should approach tours to China - it appears Man City have not been paying attention

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... tate-media" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royboyclaret · Post by **Royboyclaret** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 8:12 pm

Chester Perry wrote:Given all the turmoil of FFP in the Championship especially. @KieranMaguire has begun looking at the position of each of the clubs - this is an initial rough calculation, I believe that a more thorough analysis will following in the coming days. It does seem to show that for all it's failings FFP (and Birmingham City's points penalty) is definitely reining in the rampant overspending - at least to the guidelines.

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 1649181696" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some interesting figures at the link. Preston continue to run a tight ship, always close to break-even and never in danger of falling foul of FFP. I recall reading some time ago that Trevor Hemmings was a big admirer of the Burnley financial model and their annual figures show a strong similarity to our own when we were in the Championship.

Others are less convincing and it's easy to see QPR following the downward spiral of Bolton now that their owner appears to be investing less and less in the Club.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 10:48 pm

Another article on gambling sponsorship in football - this time focussing on the normalising aspect for children and how the fight against such sponsorship appears to be coming from the lowest levels of the game

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/foot ... chin-town/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 11:01 pm

Having exhausted every other means of avoiding FFP sanctions (they seem to have invented most of them) Derby County have adopted a policy of banning all visitors from bringing their own refreshments into the ground - must have been looking at Burnley's now legendary twix pricing structure as a means of increasing revenue

https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2019/07/upd ... t-policies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

unsurprisingly it has not gone down well https://twitter.com/henrywinter/status/ ... 3132692487" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royboyclaret · Post by **Royboyclaret** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 11:14 pm

Chester Perry wrote:Another article on gambling sponsorship in football - this time focussing on the normalising aspect for children and how the fight against such sponsorship appears to be coming from the lowest levels of the game

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/foot ... chin-town/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"..........At some point sense will surely prevail and the practise will be banned, but until then football and gambling executives will continue counting their cash, while the lives of thousands of children are ruined before they have even properly begun........."

Powerful and thought-provoking stuff.

I genuinely wish our Club did not have to be involved with these tacky Far East betting organisations but the reality is that, as a Club, we are now in it far too deep for it not to make financial sense to accept these deals. Think I pointed out higher up the thread that next season the Lovebet sponsorship to Total Income will represent 6% compared to the 1% with Fun 88 just six seasons ago in '14/'15. Sadly, very sadly, it's become a no brainer but I suspect there will still be members of our Board who are uncomfortable with the arrangement.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 11:20 pm

The really shocking thing Roy is that the shirt deal now brings in more than the matchday Income - not sure many fans would swallow a doubling of season ticket/ticket prices and a sponsor like Oak furniture land instead

Royboyclaret · Post by **Royboyclaret** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 11:21 pm

Chester Perry wrote:The really shocking thing Roy is that the shirt deal now brings in more than the matchday Income - not sure many fans would swallow a doubling of season ticket/ticket prices and a sponsor like Oak furniture land instead

Indeed.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:00 am

In post #1685 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1650" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)I revealed my shock at Juventus fans singing Mino Raiola's name when signing De Ligt - I how found out he will earn Euro 10-11m for his efforts

https://www.calciomercato.com/en/news/r ... rans-93672" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.gazzetta.it/Calciomercato/1 ... esh_ce-cpy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

he is also likely to get another fat wedge from his share of De Ligt's stonking salary if this is anything to go by

https://www.skysports.com/football/news ... s-revealed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:06 am

A compliant Gazzetta Italia has a look at Juventus' finances - some of the translation is weird but you can get the gist

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... 7077.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:25 am

Football365.com give us the rundown of the last 5 record-breaking incoming transfers of every Premier League club - obviously a quite news day

https://www.football365.com/news/the-tr ... gue-club-4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:41 pm

Forbes have released the latest version of their annual list of most valuable sports teams

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenh ... 105713283d" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

United are dropping down the rankings here too

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... teams.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:51 pm

Oldham have finally posted their accounts for 2017/18 - they have done the bare minimum necessary and left fans with even more questions, given all the ongoing issues - https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 5313760256" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 23, 2019 2:19 pm

Simon Chadwick thinks he knows why Man City are facing a bad press challenge in China (see post 1724 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1723" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 6170674179" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 23, 2019 2:24 pm

You may have read of the possibility of Gareth Bale going to China and rumours of wages of up to a £1m a week (though no transfer fee) - this would mark a very different policy to that which has been in operation until now by the Chinese authorities - Simon Chadwick on this new dawn in Chines football policy

https://www.policyforum.net/chinas-football-future/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 24, 2019 2:47 pm

I have put it on the Bolton thread - but will put it here also as it keeps everything contained - @KieranMAguire looks at the latest filings at companies house by the Bolton administrators, it includes 3 years of accounts and all their charges - which has provoked plenty of flippant comments from the Brighton fan

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 7367990272" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

on the whole the fees charging thing is overblown I think probably a deliberate misunderstanding of the costs for any organisation that earns revenue by fee charging - they have their whole infrastructure, training, development, admin, insurances and equipment to pay for and they do not come cheap in London - some of the expenses though - hmmm

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 24, 2019 6:19 pm

Mamadou Sakho sues WADA for £13m - effectively loss of earnings after being banned for 30 days and losing his place with Liverpool and France for using a substance that was not on any banned list

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -liverpool" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Jul 25, 2019 3:08 am

Apparently Sky are looking at putting 3 minute highlights packages on you tube shortly after matches are finished (they have the rights for it) and well before Match of the Day (for which the BBC will be paying £70.5m a year from this coming season)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sport ... h-Day.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

superdimitri · Post by **superdimitri** » Thu Jul 25, 2019 9:11 am

Chester Perry wrote:In post #1685 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1650" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)I revealed my shock at Juventus fans singing Mino Raiola's name when signing De Ligt - I how found out he will earn Euro 10-11m for his efforts

https://www.calciomercato.com/en/news/r ... rans-93672" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.gazzetta.it/Calciomercato/1 ... esh_ce-cpy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

he is also likely to get another fat wedge from his share of De Ligt's stonking salary if this is anything to go by

https://www.skysports.com/football/news ... s-revealed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The literal translation of De Ligt is "the lie".

But what a profession an agent has. A summers work can net you enough money to never work again.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Jul 25, 2019 12:32 pm

We first saw hints that Championship clubs may be changing their approach to getting to the promised land of Premier League riches when Leeds Director of Football Victor Orta mentioned the sanction of a points deduction on Birmingham City as the reason to be careful re FFP (see post #1559 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1558" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

Now Football365.com are noticing a trend and citing Derby as the bell weathers (I said they had probably used every trick available to them)

https://www.football365.com/news/look-t ... hard-reset" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Now - Who would have thought that swift and meaningful punishment for breaches of regulations would have had such impact?

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:14 pm

superdimitri wrote:But what a profession an agent has. A summers work can net you enough money to never work again.

you might like this blog piece from Sports Lawyer and auther of Done Deal Daniel Geey - "But who actually pays agents"

https://www.danielgeey.com/post/but-who ... ll-agents/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:25 pm

In post #641 we learned that PSG had managed to put a binding block on investigations pre 2014 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... &start=640" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) now @TariqPanja of the NY Times has discovered some disturbing features to that outcome - Panja's track record of delving through the mire of football's governing bodies is very impressive.

In P.S.G. Case, Documents Show UEFA Surrendered Without a Fight - By Tariq Panja - July 24, 2019
Disputed facts and an investigator’s calculations raise questions about European soccer’s commitment to enforcing its financial fair-play rules.

To the judge, the math at Paris St.-Germain simply did not add up.

In one free-spending summer in 2017, P.S.G. made the two most expensive acquisitions in soccer history, paying more than $400 million to add the star forwards Neymar and Kylian Mbappé to the French champions’ star-studded roster.

To outsiders, the signings — without offsetting sales of similar value or a huge infusion of sponsorship revenue — simply could not square with European soccer’s so-called financial fair-play system. Those rules, created to reduce clubs’ indebtedness and level the playing field in an era in which teams were being infused with cash by billionaires and nation-states, require clubs to balance their spending with revenue.

An investigation of P.S.G. was begun. A report was produced. When it arrived last June on the desk of José Narciso da Cunha Rodrigues, a former judge at Europe’s top court and the chairman of the UEFA panel that penalizes teams that break the organization’s financial rules, he discovered that the lead investigator had cleared P.S.G.

So after a member of his panel went through the report, Cunha Rodrigues sent the file back, demanding that the investigator, the former Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme, reassess the case. In doing so, he also raised questions about several of Leterme’s conclusions.

The details of UEFA’s nearly yearlong investigation of P.S.G., and the fight over its conclusions, are included in documents obtained by The New York Times that in page after page eviscerate the decision by UEFA investigators to exonerate the Qatari-financed club, one of the biggest spenders in sports. But the documents also reveal how UEFA appeared to sink its own investigation, and how P.S.G. used a technicality to avoid the possibility of serious punishment and preserve its cherished place in soccer’s richest competition, the Champions League.

P.S.G.’s victory also has implications for a current case — the Premier League champion Manchester City, whose rise has been financed by the brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi, now faces a similar investigation over suspected financial violations — and even for the future of financial fair play itself, and UEFA’s ability, and willingness, to enforce its rules.

“There are clubs who could not care less what their real incomes are when they want to sign a player because they receive incomes from a state,” Javier Tebas, the head of the Spanish league, said in May. “It forces other clubs into an economic situation which is really living on the edge. It skews the balance of the entire European football structure.”

P.S.G.’s defense in the 2017 case lay in its accounting, and its argument that rich sponsorship deals with Qatari entities like the telecom company Ooredoo, the Qatar National Bank and, most crucially, the Qatar Tourism Authority had made the purchases of Neymar and Mbappé — and other world-class players — possible.

But in words that barely disguised his incredulity, Cunha Rodrigues rejected the calculations presented by Leterme in his report, which favored the French club and allowed it to fall just within a ratio of UEFA’s accepted losses.

It would be, Cunha Rodrigues wrote, “adverse to the interests of clubs competing in UEFA competitions for one club to maintain a substantial financial advantage from an erroneous application of the regulations by the chief investigator.”

“The decision to close the case,” Cunha Rodrigues wrote, “was manifestly erroneous.”

But there would be no further investigation, and no re-analysis of Leterme’s decision. P.S.G. appealed the decision by Cunha Rodrigues’s adjudicatory chamber to send back the file, taking its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. There, it argued that there had been a procedural error that required Leterme’s decision to stand. UEFA sided with P.S.G., agreeing with the French club’s interpretation of the rules. Its failure to back Cunha Rodrigues’s committee meant the case was closed.

In a statement, UEFA said it had “full trust in the work” carried out by Leterme and Cunha Rodrigues, pointing out the committees they oversee are run independently.

“It is therefore possible that the views of the members of one chamber are not always the same of those of the other chamber,” it said.
The details surrounding the decision to clear P.S.G. in 2018 have been shrouded in secrecy, but the documents reviewed by The Times suggest that, at the very least, the French champion had a narrow escape. But the outcome of the case is likely to lead to further scrutiny of the close relationship between the team’s Qatari owners and UEFA. P.S.G.’s president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, sits on UEFA’s executive committee and is also the chairman of beIN Media Group, the Qatar-based broadcaster that has committed billions to secure television rights from UEFA and other partners.

P.S.G. had been mired in mediocrity until it was purchased by Qatar’s sovereign investment fund, Qatar Sports Investments, in 2011. Having secured hosting rights to the 2022 World Cup a year earlier, the tiny Gulf state was eager to create a superclub that could challenge established soccer royalty like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester United. It immediately went on a spending spree to construct a team, and an organization, capable of overwhelming domestic rivals and challenging for Europe’s biggest trophies. By 2017, it seemed to conclude that Neymar and Mbappé might put it over the top.

Those high-end, head-spinning purchases came against a backdrop of UEFA’s financial regulations, which had come into full force a few years earlier. How, critics and rivals asked, could P.S.G. surpass the world transfer record not once, but twice, and stay within the rules?

The solution the club reached — as did Manchester City, which was accumulating high-end players in England in a similar spending spree — was to sign a slew of sponsorship deals and associations with enterprises linked to its owners. One in particular stood out: a huge agreement with the Qatar Tourism Authority for a nebulous concept known as “nation branding” that was booked as P.S.G.’s highest sponsorship deal, more than 100 million euros ($111 million) per season.

It was those sponsorship deals that came under the microscope when P.S.G., already penalized for a financial breach in 2015, came under investigation again only a month after the Neymar and Mbappé transfers. Under F.F.P. rules, clubs cannot spend more than they earn, and if they do, they can only fall within a limit of 30 million euros across three years.

To assess the value of P.S.G.’s sponsorships, Leterme, the UEFA financial investigator, commissioned the sports marketing company
Octagon Worldwide to analyze the agreements. He also told P.S.G. it could hire a different firm to conduct its own analysis.

The Octagon version returned a verdict that valued the Qatar tourism agreement, a sponsorship that had hardly any visibility, at less than 5 million euros; P.S.G. said its analysis, conducted for the club by Nielsen, came back with a figure close to the amount claimed by P.S.G. Rather than request a third study, Leterme determined, to the consternation of members of his investigative committee, that the Nielsen figures should be used.

When those higher figures were used as the basis to clear P.S.G., Cunha Rodrigues was incredulous. “The chief investigator took into account the value most favorable to the club as derived from the Nielsen report, and did not give any reasons the fair values reached in the Octagon report should be disregarded,” he wrote. Cunha Rodrigues noted that in some calculations submitted by Leterme, the investigator had increased P.S.G.’s sponsorship income even higher than the figures proposed by Nielsen.

Yet the structure of UEFA’s financial fair play organization meant Leterme had sole discretion in the cases presented to his committee. While some members of his panel vehemently disagreed with his decision to clear P.S.G. — one person familiar with the committee’s work labeled his conclusions “absurd reasonings” — Leterme’s decision was nonetheless announced on June 18, when the world’s soccer media was focused on the 2018 World Cup that had kicked off four days earlier.

By Leterme’s calculations, P.S.G. had, despite its record spending and with the help of its disputed sponsorships, incurred a loss of only 24 million euros over the three-year period — just within the mark that would have triggered a referral for penalties to Cunha Rodrigues’s adjudicatory chamber.

“Contrary to the assertion by the chief investigator, this treatment of the fair value of the QTA agreement in reporting period 2017 was indeed of great advantage to the club,” Cunha Rodrigues wrote. He also pointed to other agreements that also appeared to be overvalued, to P.S.G.’s benefit, in Leterme’s final report.

This and a number of other findings led him to the conclusion that the decision to clear P.S.G. should be “vitiated,” or scrapped, and that a new investigation should be undertaken immediately.

But before that could happen, P.S.G. announced that it was mounting an appeal, saying that there were no grounds for Cunha Rodrigues to scrap Leterme’s decision, and that he had missed a 10-day deadline to conduct a review. Cunha Rodrigues described that as a “logical absurdity,” given the amount of work needed to assess the documents and valuations in an F.F.P. case. The 10-day limit, he said, referred to starting a review, not concluding it.

Galatasaray, a Turkish team that had reached a settlement with Leterme that Cunha Rodrigues also wanted re-evaluated, filed a similar appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport a week later. P.S.G. and UEFA agreed to wait for the result in the Galatasaray hearing before resuming the case.
But UEFA, to the horror of Cunha Rodrigues and other adjudicatory chamber officials, sided with Galatasaray’s interpretation of the 10-day limit, and didn’t even mount a defense. A few weeks later, it did the same in the P.S.G. case, and on March 19, in a short news release, it announced Leterme’s decision would stand.

“Following a legal assessment made, with support of external legal counsel, concerning the interpretation of the above-mentioned article, UEFA concluded that indeed there were strong arguments supporting the interpretation presented by the club,” UEFA said in its statement to The Times.

There are no longer any active investigations into P.S.G. And Neymar and Mbappé, for now, still form one of the most potent attacking forces on the planet.

Manchester City’s case is up next: Cunha Rodrigues is scheduled to deliver a verdict later this year.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:50 pm

Interesting move - Liverpool football club want to trademark the word "Liverpool" in the context of football products and services

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/li ... d-16642974" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

wonder what Everton think of that being a football club in Liverpool longer than Liverpool and a founder member of the league and former landlords of Liverpool

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:14 am

You can add City of Liverpool FC to those disgruntled with Liverpool's attempts to trademark the name

https://twitter.com/CityofLpoolFC/statu ... 0754697216" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

GodIsADeeJay81 · Post by **GodIsADeeJay81** » Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:20 am

Chester Perry wrote:Interesting move - Liverpool football club want to trademark the word "Liverpool" in the context of football products and services

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/li ... d-16642974" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

wonder what Everton think of that being a football club in Liverpool longer than Liverpool and a founder member of the league and former landlords of Liverpool

Considering Liverpool were actually Everton's reserve team originally, I'd say Everton are going to be annoyed.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:29 pm

The Times has a look at what Football at the top level will look like in 10 years - it is part of a series on the Future of sport

Future of sport: what will football look like in ten years’ time?
In the second part of a new series exploring what sport will look like in a decade’s time, Martyn Ziegler speaks to industry experts about the future of football

On the pitch
If you think football is already too technical then you ain’t seen nothing yet. Football has been way behind many other professional sports in terms of a scientific approach but in ten years’ time it is probable every Premier League side will have a much bigger team of analysts, sports scientists, data gurus and specialist coaches. Liverpool are one of those leading the way on this, and other clubs are following quickly behind.

Simon Austin, the founder of the Training Ground Guru website, says: “Data science is going to be a massive thing over the next ten years. The clubs are gathering massive amounts of data at the moment — GPS tracking, camera-based data on everything a player does and where he goes, health and fitness data, blood markers. Attention is now turning to how to best use all that data.”

Austin says clubs such as Liverpool and Manchester City are already using computer modelling to determine where players should go to on the pitch in certain situations, and he believes it will be common practice in ten years’ time.

“Liverpool are using analytics to determine where players should move to in order to create space,” he says.

The other big change in tactics which is already becoming established now and will almost certainly be widespread in the next decade is the end of the focus on what is known to tactical researchers as Zone 14: the “golden square” in front of the penalty box, which for years coaches have concentrated on to formulate their attacking plans.

Increasingly, the successful teams in the Premier League, and their playmakers, have been looking elsewhere. For example Kevin De Bruyne at Manchester City and Mohamed Salah at Liverpool rarely stray in to Zone 14.

“At Manchester City , Pep Guardiola has been focusing on the “half space” — the channel between the full back and the centre half — and something like 85 per cent of their goals come from there,” Austin adds.

“Other clubs’ coaches and managers know now they have to start to follow this kind of analytical approach. The old Mourinho approach of “transitions” and quick counterattacks has long gone.”

The rules
Football prides itself on being a conservative sport in terms of changes to the laws of the game, but every so often a reform is made which has a major effect on how it is played. Preventing the goalkeeper from handling pass-backs has been perhaps the most significant change to the laws in the last half-century, and it certainly had an immediate impact in terms of speeding up the game.

So what is in the melting pot for changes to the laws of the game in the 2020s?

There probably is nothing as dramatic as the back-pass rule, but the International FA Board, football’s law-making body, may well look at the offside rule. Some in the game believe it should be altered so that there has to be daylight between the attacker and the defender to make it both easier for officials to spot, and to make the game more exciting.

The other area which will be given serious consideration is sin-bins for dissent by players. This has been trialled in England already with considerable success, and is now being spread out across amateur football, and there is a very real chance of it being extended to the professional game.

Players’ fitness
It might seem that there is no way that the highly-trained and honed footballer of today’s Premier League can get any fitter, but that is far from the truth.

The future of football will not necessarily see players being able to run further during a match, but it will almost certainly be able to see them running faster more often.

Enhanced fitness techniques are coming in to train players to be able to make more high-intensity sprints during a match. The old box-to-box midfielder, who ran up and down the pitch at a medium pace for 90 minutes may be a thing of the past, as are the days of squads being sent out for a cross-country run, or up and down a hill, as part of their fitness regime.

European competitions

At European club level , the future of the Champions League is the elephant in the room. Uefa, the European Clubs’ Association (ECA), the leagues and the national associations are locked in negotiations about future changes to the competition to come in from 2024, which effectively means they will still be in force in 2029.

The most likely outcome appears to be a greater number of European matches for the clubs involved in the Champions League, but not at the level proposed by the ECA.

An expansion looks a real possibility, with 48 teams in the Champions League split into eight groups of six teams, and meaning ten group games instead of six under the existing format.

There is also likely to be a greater number of clubs in the Europa League and a third tier European competition.

One domestic impact of that could be on the EFL Cup — it would be challenging for teams involved in Europe to also play in the competition as well given the number of extra games.

As for a European Super League, that has been used for the last 20 years as a threat by the top clubs to scare Uefa and the domestic leagues, and it will probably still be being used in another 20 years.

TV, technology and commercial
Imagine sitting down to watch a football match on TV, but instead of slumping on the sofa, you can actually choose a seat in the stadium and experience the game “as live”. Virtual reality is where football broadcasters are expected to focus their technological research, and it is already happening in e-sports.

Tim Crow, an independent sports marketing adviser, says: “What is possible in ten years’ time could be radically different from what is possible now.
“The TV viewer could have a virtual reality experience of sport and other entertainment through technology. It could be as though you are not just watching remotely, but you feel as though you are there.”

Ten years ago, 138 of the 380 Premier League matches per season were televised live. This season, 200 will be screened live, more than half. Elsewhere across Europe, every single match in the big leagues can be accessed live by TV viewers, so the pressure will be on the Premier League to follow suit — especially as domestic TV rights’ values have declined in the 2019-22 deal.

The fall in domestic rights could hasten another possible change, and that is the big clubs looking to increase their direct links with their fans globally to give them access to video content not available elsewhere. That is a potential concern for the balance of the game, if it means the rich clubs becoming still richer.

“The big clubs with global fanbases have a popularity that is off the charts in lots of different countries,” says Crow. “The relationship between clubs and fans globally is going to change.

“These clubs may be valued at a fraction of what a service such as Netflix is valued at, but have the potential to reach millions and millions of people who are prepared to pay for an OTT [streaming] service.

“Everyone is eyeing this and looking at how they can maximise this opportunity.”

Sponsorship income has the potential to grow significantly if the clubs manage to achieve success with their own streaming services, but not necessarily from all sponsors.

By 2029, the chances are that betting companies will not be permitted to have their logos plastered all over the front of players’ shirts.

Crow believes most bookmakers already know the writing is on the wall, even if the Conservative Government has shown no appetite to introduce a ban, and are already planning for a future where they will have to be more creative with their football-related advertising.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Jul 26, 2019 1:01 pm

We know they need the money but Real Madrid have decided not to sell the Naming rights to a revamped Santiago Bernabeu when work is complete

https://sponsorship.sportbusiness.com/n ... hopkinson/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That may just be that they have found that there is not really much of a market for an established ground where fans would demand a premium be paid - Barcelona have been having that difficulty over the last couple of years - the redevelopment of Camp Nou depends on a deal being in place and being paid up front

https://www.thestadiumbusiness.com/2019 ... -proposal/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and of course you have the problems Spurs have found for a completely new stadium that features NFL, concerts as well as Football (I suspect in a few years the primary purpose (other than making money) will be blurred as non football events will occur more often than football

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Jul 26, 2019 1:07 pm

We read almost constantly on this board about the problems getting refreshments at the Turf - how about this initiative from Los Angeles FC

https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/s ... home-games" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;